(Photo credit: Province of B.C.)

By Pete McIntyre

106 Interior cases

B.C. Covid update Monday: cases decreasing, more vaccines arriving

May 3, 2021 | 3:52 PM

British Columbia’s Covid-19 numbers were down over the weekend, with an average of 725 a day, for a total of 2,174.

The weekly average going into Monday was 818 cases per day.

Interior Health had 106 of the new cases and there were 15 more deaths, raising the death toll to 1,596.

Elsewhere, Vancouver Coastal Health had 438 new cases since Friday, Fraser Health had 1,509, Island Health had 61 and Northern Health had 60.

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The case counts over the weekend were 835 from Friday to Saturday, 671 from Saturday to Sunday and 668 from Sunday to Monday.

There are now 7,327 active cases, with 474 people with Covid in hospital, 176 in critical or intensive care.

As of Monday afternoon, 1,877,330 doses of Covid vaccines have gone into arms with 91,731 of those being second doses.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said that means 41 per cent of those eligible have had at least one dose.

“We have reached a new and encouraging point in our vaccine supply, where it will be much more available to everyone,” Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said.

Henry and Dix said B.C. will be receiving 1.1 million doses of Pfizer vaccines this month, with 276,000 of Pfizer each week, along with hundreds of thousands of Moderna.

“It means everyone over age 60 will have access to vaccines before Canada Day, if not sooner,” Henry said.

Henry said the added vaccine supply will also allow B.C. to speed up second doses.

“With the increased supply, we are looking at potentially decreasing the interval to less than 16 weeks for most people,” Henry added.

Henry also said they are watching “mix and match studies” around world to see if it’s safe and effective to combine different types of vaccines for second doses.

Anyone 18 and older is eligible to register on Get vaccinated website.